My Dads friend always claimed that the hijab was only instituted by Muhammad to hide his mistress. Is there any truth to this claim?

by anthologyincomplete

To clarify he was an Iranian historian who took a keen interest in Islamic studies. He always claimed this, but I was curious what some other people thought about his idea.

Edit: I meant the niqab, not the hijab, thank you for pointing this out.

Ploofy_4

Do you mean the hijab which is a head scarf or a full body covering like the burka/face covering like the niqab? With the hijab, there is no way it would hide a mistress, it would only hide her hair.